Pennsylvania Ballet, a parent company of last year's joint venture which resulted in the formation of the Pennsylvania and Milwaukee Ballet, turns 25 this year. M. Scott Robinson, director of marketing and public relations for the troupe, explained in a recent interview what this means to the company and the city of Philadelphia.

"Number one, it means that something of quality, the company, has come a long way and endured. The world of the arts is a precarious world, with funding having to rely on so many variables. It's really tough to keep afloat," Robinson said.

"Naturally, we had our time back in 1982 where wehad our problems," he said in reference to the period when operations were suspended for several months for company reorganization, just prior to the hiring of Robert Weiss as artistic director.

"We think we've put them behind us, but you're always walking that fine line between artistic success, selling the right number of tickets, and bringing in the right amount of contributed income to keep yourself going. It's a struggle.

"It's a real testimony to the people of Philadelphia and the greater Delaware Valley who have supported us over 25 years that we've grown from that first performance out in Paoli on a farm estate to performing on a regular basis at the two major theatres (The Academy of Music and the Shubert Theatre) in the city."

The silver anniversary season was the responsibility of those representing artistic visions (Weiss, artistic associate Richard Tanner, and company manager Beth Berdes) and administrative realities (Robinson and vice president and general manager Donald McPhalail). These combined influences resulted in what Robinson describes as a "mixed bag" for the upcoming season, which includes a number of full-length ballets as well as several mixed repertory programs.

"This particular season there were a couple of things we wanted to accomplish," Robinson said. "One, we have an opportunity to be taped by the PBS television series, 'Dance in America.' They requested we do Peter Martins' version of 'La Sylphide,' which we first did in 1985. We'll be doing that in September, so that sort of cinched up that slot. They wanted to tape it as soon as possible because they want to show it in the spring.

"In March, Robert Weiss really wanted to bring back his 'Winter Dreams,' his full-length ballet that premiered two seasons ago. It was a tremendous success and played to sold-out houses and left Philadelphia witha real yearning to see it again. That combined with a tour down to the Kennedy Center (in Washington, D.C.) at the end of January, where they also requested we do 'Winter Dreams.' So we wanted to combine doing it in January and then again in March in Philadelphia.

"To round out the season, we tried to do something that's popular and that our subscribers enjoy so this June we'll be doing (George) Balanchine's version of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' So with those three full-lengths in place, we've accomplished a number of things. And we've helped the company to rise to a more national presence, through the 'Dance in America' series and the tour to the Kennedy Center where 'Winter Dreams' will be presented for the first time out of Philadelphia.

"In our second series, Oct. 5-16 at the Shubert Theatre, we'll be performing Williams Forsythe's 'Steptext.' We'll be the only company in the country that will have the rights to perform 'Steptext' over the course of the next season. We're excited about this," Robinson added. "Steptext" had its U.S. premiere in June, when Forsythe brought his Frankfurt Ballet to New York City.

"In addition to that," he continued, "we'll be doing Leonard Bernstein and Richard Tanner's setting of 'Candide Variations' that we did previously in 1983. Then, alternating with 'Candide Variations,' Richard Tanner will be setting his 'XVIII Symphonic Etudes' and two other pieces that he did at the Factory Project in Milwaukee over the summer, a piece called '2nd Construction' and 'Pulse,' two pieces with music by John Cage. That series will help satisfy our artistic needs," which he explained were to produce new works.

The Milwaukee Factory Project is a renovated factory where the company spent three weeks this summer. The workshop-style atmosphere lent itself well to learning works that could be fine-tuned later for the upcoming season.

The remaining two program series will run back-to-back at the Shubert Theatre: a series of world premieres beginning April 19 and a tribute to Balanchine the following week. The premieres will include new pieces by Weiss, Tanner, and guest choreographer Lynn Taylor-Corbett, and the Balanchine program will include his Japanese "Bugaku," "Symphony in C" and "Prodigal Son."